I arrived in Maidenhead as the children and parents were swarming out onto the playing field. Sports Day is a big day at Rebekah’s infants school and all the children take part. Teachers play various roles on the day and one of these was Master of Ceremonies. This involved using a megaphone that crackled louder than the words that emerged from it! Others helped by ringing bells at opportune moments, keeping the scores and generally maintaining some semblance of order among the excited participants!

The children were split into four teams (Red, Yellow, Green and Blue) and there were nine different events which were laid out around the field. They stayed in their classes and, after each event, participants and spectators moved on to the next one.

The weather had dried up by the time we were ready to begin although the clouds were still looking somewhat threatening!

Sports Day getting underway beneath a threatening sky

Rebekah’s first event consisted of throwing three quoits into a hoop and then running around a cone.

First event underway

The second event was an egg and spoon race. Holding a spoon with an egg balancing on it, competitors had to run a short distance before returning to the start.

The egg and spoon race

Rebekah’s third event was the baton relay which involved running a short distance and back with a baton, before passing it on to the next person in the team.

The Baton Relay

The fourth event for Rebekah was skipping.

Skipping!

Following the skipping, we moved onto bouncing a tennis ball on a tennis racquet whilst running.

Tennis ball bouncing

After this, we moved onto beanbag throwing into hoops which demanded real concentration!

Beanbag throwing

With just three events remaining, we moved on to running between markers laid out on the ground.

Rebekah putting some effort into her running

The sack race was Rebekah’s penultimate event. Sacks have changed a little from my day, when brown cotton versions were the order of the day.

Rebekah enjoying the sack race

Rebekah’s final event was dribbling a football between markers.

Nimble footwork required for the final event

Fortunately the weather remained dry throughout the programme of events. Once again, everything had been both well organised and well executed by the school and the dozens of parents and grandparents headed home more than satisfied with the afternoon’s activities.